It's Slow Stitching Time

A beautiful sunny day for us here in the Outaouais Valley but windy and chilly.  Good weather to stay inside and stitch you say? Yes I guess. Although I would like to work on my chair a little bit again. Heck no it's not finished but I am happy with the progress I've made last week. It's back on my try-to-accomplish-this-today list. :D

On to quilty things: I finally manage to do the last of the Marcus Designer Sew-Along block. I tweaked it a little bit. (it looks wonky in the picture lol.)

The directions / instructions for the alternate blocks and settings were posted on the Marcus Fabric site. Like the good girl that I am, I followed the pattern and cut out the cream and the black fabric. I assembled part of the 9 patch blocks, I got on my knees and put the quilt "together" to get a feel of it and ... I don't like it.

My eyes keep going back to the 9 patch block and ignore the clolourful blocks.  I have worked so hard on for these blocks, I want them to be the center piece of the quilt not the simple 9 patch! So I am trying some different settings.

 

I bought this green fabric especially for this quilt and I don't like it. I've cut and sewn some black 9 patch blocks that I don't think I will use.  Ooohhh! Where is Rebel when you need her??!!

So I cannot finish this one. Fine, I can live with one more uncompleted project! I still haven't figured out what to do with the Spool quilt either. Okay so two uncompleted project to add to the list!! Maybe it's time to start something new!  YEAH!! Something new sounds delicious right now. Okay so what about a Jewel Box? (I've been wanting to do this one for a long time.) Or maybe, blue and red 9 patch for the playroom? Or maybe a string quilt à la JulieK? (Love her work.) Yes, that sounds fun. What about Attic Window in flannel? Or maybe ...  Okay enough already!! Personally, I need a cup of coffee after this. Anyone else has a looooonnng list of quilts to do? It would be faster to ask who doesN'T have a long list of quilts to do!

This morning (like every Sunday morning) I read Kathy's post,  and I will share a secret with you; I too keep track of progress. I do hand quilting on a frame that rolls the quilt so it is easy to lose track of where you are. Since I am the kind who gets discourage when a project is too long to finish, keeping track is very encouraging for me. So I do this on the old chalkboard:

It is a quick reference. I have the rows done on the Quilt of the Century (row 24 is almost done), the hand quilted blocks of Take 21, third row - fourth block is done and the number of blocks  done for the next crumb quilt. When I need a better reference, I go to the computer and open Excel. The Quilt of the Century is a particularly long project so I have made a spreadsheet with the upcoming fabric I want to use less I forget.

I also keep track of what needs to be done on my Uncompleted Fabric Objects (quilts). Oh oh, here comes the ugly truth lol! Well since it is pretty small, I guess you can't read how bad I am.  :) I will at least explain to you what the far left column means. The yellow highlights the uncompleted ones, the blue is for those I am working on (actively working on) and the green ones are, yes, the forever growing to-do list.  :)  (Yes, I am a colour coded person and the stats keeper at the office lol. )

Okay, enough of the ugly stuff! Lets get down to the REAL business: stitching! I will think of my  next project while hand quilting block 5 of row 3 on "Take 21".  Hope you can join Kathy and I in some Slow Sunday Stitching. Does it really need to be just ONE new project?

Enjoy!